American Publishing Corporation

Original and complete set of this cult ‘60s “game” kit: a psychedelic puzzle with no rules and no solution.

• American Publishing Corporation (American).
• Waltham, MA: American Publishing Corporation, 1966.
• Contains 21 6’’ x 4’’ playing pieces, each printed with colorful designs on rectos (versos with various black-and-white line drawings).
• Housed in original black and white cardboard box, with illustrated label mounted to lid as issued.

A happening disguised as a board game: twenty game pieces printed with bright swirling illustrations and cut with interlocking grooves, housed in a box illustrated with a representative three-dimensional construction a player might build. Issued in 1966, when both LSD and party games were in the height of fashion (Tim Leary was arguably at the height of his fame at this time) and the casual mind-expanding drug user was in great need of aimless but absorbing activity kits to purchase. Cards included were not identical set to set, with several patterns, themes, and motifs (some figurative, some entirely abstract) printed and inserted into games in various configurations; the present example is particularly psychedelic. Quickly discontinued (LSD was officially outlawed in the US in late 1968); now rare. OCLC does not locate.“crazy as a lune. I actually own one of these kits. Food was flying everywhere I left without my hat.” @RichardPrince4, Twitter.